Advani, PM disagree on communal-secular divide

New Delhi, Apr.21 (ANI): Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani on Tuesday disagreed with the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s view that the secular-communal divide is a very important drive and that he did not see India having any future except by staying with secular values.

Advani charged the Prime Minister and the Congress party with advocating a brand of pseudo-secularism to purchase votes, and added that the divide between secularism and communalism has existed since time Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister of the country (1947-64).

The Prime Minister also voiced his opinion on coalition politics, saying that if one colleague criticizes another other on the eve of the election, a tragic view should not be taken.

He also said that the Indian Government and the Congress party’s stand on the LTTE is common i.e. that the LTTE is a terrorist organisation and that Prabhakaran is a proclaimed offender.

“That, I think the situation has remained unchanged as far as our government is concerned,” he said.

He also said that he did not take a dim or a tragic view of the stand-off between the ruling party and the opposition.

“I don’t take a tragic view of these things. At the election times, such strain in relationships keeps happening. I am confident that if we form the government, we will be able to establish a relation of trust and confidence with the principal opposition party,” Dr. Singh said in his interview to the Times Now television channel. (ANI)